The present invention relates to a tire pressure monitoring system and a method adapted to automatically register tire ID (identification) codes provided to respective tires separately.
An automatic ID code registration logic of a conventional tire pressure monitoring system is adapted to determine running or stoppage of a vehicle based on a vehicle speed. The registration logic finishes an ID code registration mode when the vehicle stops and enters the ID code registration mode when the vehicle speed becomes higher again as disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-71726.
However, the conventional tire pressure monitoring system is encountered by a problem that an ID code registration that is not needed to be performed if a tire is not changed is performed wastefully upon stoppage of a vehicle and accurate detection of the tire pressures cannot be attained during the wasteful ID code registration.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a tire pressure monitoring system that can eliminate such a wasteful ID code registration and can retain a time for accurate detection of tire pressures.
To achieve the above object, there is provided according to an aspect of the present invention a tire pressure monitoring system comprising a tire pressure detecting device attached to each of tires of a vehicle and detecting a tire pressure, a transmitting device that transmits radio signals indicative of a detected tire pressure of each tire and each corresponding ID code provided to each tire separately, a receiving device attached to a vehicle body side and receiving the radio signals from the transmitting device, and a controller that controls a tire deflation warning, the controller including an ID code registration section that registers the ID code of each tire by updating data stored in a memory, and a jack-up determination section that determines whether the vehicle has been jacked up, wherein the ID code registration section performs registration of the ID code of each tire when the jack-up determination section determines that the vehicle has been jacked up.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tire pressure monitoring system comprising tire pressure detecting means provided to each of tires of a vehicle for detecting a tire pressure of each tire, transmitting means for transmitting radio signals indicative of a detected tire pressure of each tire and each corresponding ID code provided to each tire separately, receiving means provided to a vehicle body side for receiving the radio signals from the transmitting means, ID code registration means for registering the ID code of each tire by updating data stored in a memory, and jack-up determination means for determining whether jack-up of the vehicle has been made, wherein the ID registration means performs registration of the ID code of each tire when the jack-up determination means determines that the vehicle has been jacked up.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tire pressure monitoring method comprising detecting a tire pressure of each of tires of a vehicle, transmitting radio signals indicative of a detected tire pressure of each tire together with each corresponding ID code provided to each tire separately, receiving the radio signals, registering the ID code of each tire by updating data stored in a memory, and determining whether the vehicle has been jacked up, wherein the registering the ID code of each tire is performed when the determining determines that the vehicle has been jacked up.